The Man That Builds Rocking Horses

in #art8 years ago (edited)


One of these masterpieces can take anywhere from 90 – 240 hours to complete. Jim only makes five a year.  

 


I met Jim, the rocking horse man, at the Glengallan Homestead Market (Australia), which is about a hundred kilometres away from my shop. Making rocking horses is a hobby for Jim, a labour of love and apparently a bit addictive.  This is true craftsmanship that commands your attention. I am so taken by these incredible creatures of art.   




Every part of each rocking horse is made with recycled timber, real horse hair and handcrafted saddles and stirrups.   



A custom built rocking horse by Jim will set you back quite a few thousand dollars. When you are looking at something so beautiful and well made, I think price is not so dictating.   



So who buys these Rocking Horses?   

According to Jim, his best customers are school teachers that are starting a family. Jim's horses are the stuff of childhood nostalgia. The dappled grey horse is his best seller, a fact he attributes to their resemblance to the kind of rocking horses you would find in old illustrated story books. 


  
In this day of fast mass production, we see so many copies of the real thing. Running my own recycled gallery, I am always on the hunt for stuff. I see lots of factory made horses discarded in the dump or charity stores. They can never measure up and barely last for one year or even one generation.



I am so glad I met Jim. It is comforting knowing that traditional craftsmanship is not dead yet!   
 
Until next time, 

xx Isabella

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Wow. My kids would love seeing his work in person! Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing.

You are most welcome.

This takes me back to my own childhood, but my rocking horse was plastic.

My daughters have these furry soft toy style rocking horses and they LOVE them but they are far from special. One thing I have learnt from my own children, is often the sort of toys that I love (usually wooden whimsical pieces) my daughters ditch in a second for a big piece of colourful, music playing plastic.

Making rocking horses is a hobby for Jim

Say what? He spends 450-1200 hours a year painstakingly creating these horses? I'll be honest, I've worked less hours in a year than that.

Yeah I know right! Even though his horses are expensive, it would not even come close to properly compensating him for his time, let alone his skills. Not sure what would make this turn from a hobby to a job - time perhaps but also his view to what he does?

Well, I guess you can compare it to just about any other hobby someone has. At least there is some monetary benefit for it, and the perfectionism must have created some impressive neural networks within his brain.

Does he do basically the same horse each time, or does he improvise with the paint or other things, especially if he gets a custom order for one?

Most of his horses are commissioned pieces. So the customer has a large say in the final product. He has a catalogue of past styles so I am sure some look similar but Jim was saying that he only uses recycled materials, so small details on the saddles, hair etc.. would be unique to each horse.

My mom would love that so much. she collects carousel horses. Cool post bridget.

Oh a collection of carousel horses - how magical. You should photography some and post up on Steemit. I love seeing the interesting things people collect.

What a remarkable man and a fascinating story. Thanks for sharing!

take my money...I want one hehehe XD

Beautiful, magical. My grandchildren would love these. Thank you for the beautiful post and pictures.

You are most welcome @team101

These are absolutely gorgeous! Brilliant work! upvoted and shared

Wonderful craftsmanship. I am sure they make the kids smile from ear to ear!

They are built strong, but I think I would be nervous to actually use it incase my children broke it. Not that I bought one. One day! Seems like the sort of thing a grandparent would buy :)

My partner builds rocking horses, and they look amazing but these are absolutely incredible. I feel it is totally a lost art the pain staking hours that go into these works of art. Thanks you for sharing.

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